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The first Champion Pack was probably the most exciting thing to happen to local tournament prize structures since D.D. Warrior was revealed as the ultra rare card in Tournament Pack 7. Regardless of whether you were looking for more copies of hard-to-find cards like Big Shield Gardna or just trying to foil out your deck with a set of super rare Sakuretsu Armor cards, Champion Pack Game One was the way to go. Personally, my favorite part of the set was the normal rare version of Solemn Judgment, a card that has been in very short supply at my local store for as long as I’ve been playing there. Really, you can never have enough copies of Solemn Judgment, especially if you play strategies that you don’t want your opponent to ruin by intervening.

I have to admit that sometimes, when I have a large volume of packs that need opening, I don’t always pay much attention to what’s in them until I’m finished. I know it’s an awful habit and I’ve definitely gone back to old boxes that I thought were filled with nothing but commons only to find a secret rare or two that I didn’t know I had, but for some reason I just can’t seem to kick the habit. The latest victim of this practice was unfortunately one of the rarer cards I’ve been fortunate enough to open: the ultra rare Satellite Cannon. When I finally got around to sorting things out (and picking up another playset of Solemn Judgment cards!) I discovered this gem just sitting there in a pile of commons. Needless to say, I was shocked that I could have left such a unique card sitting unused in a tin. There was only one thing I could do to rectify the situation: make a Satellite Cannon deck!

The thing about Satellite Cannon that turns many duelists off is that it takes a while to work, and in that time you’d better believe your opponent will be doing everything in his or her power to destroy it. Now, one thing the Cannon does have going for it is that, while you’re charging your laser, the Cannon is protected from destruction by monsters of level 7 or less. Unfortunately, it’s granted no such protection from the other ills of the world. Spells, traps, and monster effects can still take it out, but they won’t. Why not? Because we’re going to stop them, every step of the way. Those Solemn Judgment cards from the rest of your Champion Packs will help, so make sure you dig them out!

2 Phoenix Wing Wind Blast

I really like this deck for a number of reasons. First off, it plays Satellite Cannon, which is totally sweet in and of itself. Second, it combines my strategy of choice with those wacky Ojama monsters. Most people find the Ojamas themselves to be . . . shall we say, obtrusive? In this particular case, however, they’re a welcome addition to my hand, since we’ll need to pay some heavy costs in order to keep our strategy going. Specifically, we’re going to be discarding a bunch of cards in order to keep Satellite Cannon on the field. Divine Wrath and Magic Jammer are both useful sources of “hard negation”—negation that is guaranteed—but both of them require a discard in order to be activated. For most decks, this would quickly lead to a total depletion of your resources and likely a loss, but I’ve just happened to pick the exact two strategies that make this almost a non-issue.

Anyone who has met me at an event knows that I have a really difficult time not talking about how good Bountiful Artemis is. It’s a card that rewards you for protecting the cards you commit to your field, and it does so with a solid body that can (in defense position) stand up to a vast majority of commonly played monsters forcing the use of removal to get it off the field. Artemis is a threat—a huge one—and its drawing ability makes it the perfect card to draw fire away from the real threat. Unfortunately, it’s distinctly less invulnerable to battle than our orbital friend. Specifically, Cyber Dragon can be a huge pain when we’re talking about keeping Artemis on the field. Unfortunately, we can’t Wrath the special summon of Cyber Dragon, so to make up for it, we have other means of protection. On an offensive push, Cyber Dragon is usually joined by another monster—Breaker perhaps. The Breaker won’t be a problem, since after it uses its effect, it’s just another monster that can’t beat Artemis. The problem is, what are you going to do about Cyber Dragon? I’d suggest nailing it with Phoenix Wing Wind Blast. Bonus if you do it in response to Breaker trying to destroy your trap card. This will force the opponent to rely on removal to get rid of Artemis, and hopefully you’ll have a counter ready.

The other strategy I’ve incorporated is similar to one that you saw in one of Jae’s decks a while back. Ojamagic is a tricky little card. One can’t simply activate it because it has no effect when activated. Rather, if it’s sent to the graveyard for any reason, you get three more cards out of your deck to do with as you please. Sure, those three cards are one each of the Ojama brothers, but even they have their uses. While Jae preferred to discard them to Snipe Hunter and roll the dice, I prefer to do something definite and debilitating with my discards. Phoenix Wing Wind Blast, Magic Jammer, and Divine Wrath can all ruin your opponent’s plans in a big way, and each failed attempt to get rid of your Satellite Cannon will result in one fewer turn before you can blow him or her away with it. Now here’s the thing: once your opponent begins to realize what’s going on, he or she is going to try to stay defensive. The opponent will switch monsters to defense mode and maybe even set a couple, and this is something you’ll need to be prepared for.

In theory, you should be able to hold the opponent off for as long as necessary, as long as you keep the Cannon on the field in defense mode. Not many decks play level 8 or higher monsters (with the exception of the Chimeratech Overdragon combo decks), so Satellite Cannon is usually as good as a Spirit Reaper in terms of not getting blown away in battle. When it’s finally time to win the game, the first thing you need to do is clear away your opponent’s field. You have three copies each of cards to clear the back row and your opponent’s monsters, and plenty of time to draw them. The only problem is that you need all of your opponent’s monsters to be face up in order to make things work. There are options for this, the easiest being Swords of Revealing Light. In fact, it’s something you can do multiple times in a single game, thanks to the wonders of Giant Trunade, but if things don’t work out like that, you can always send other monsters to attack and flip monsters face up. It’s risky business though, and if at all possible, you want to draw through to that copy of Swords. You have plenty of deck thinning thanks to the Ojamagic cards (and to a lesser extent, the Shining Angel cards), so it should be possible, especially if you manage to flip a Magical Merchant or two.

As usual, there are a few other things that you should be aware of when you’re playing this deck. First off, if necessary, you can use the classic Premature Burial/Giant Trunade trick to get your Satellite Cannon back on to the field and free of the influence of Premature. Why would Satellite Cannon be in the graveyard? Well, it could get there via Magical Merchant, which is all right considering that you don’t ever want to draw the card. It’s also theoretically possible that your opponent will be able to destroy your Cannon at least once. While this saddens me to the core, we just have to accept that sometimes things don’t work out so well. That’s why you should always have a back-up plan. In this case, we can resurrect the Satellite Cannon, or we can try to get the other one out of the deck. I only have two Cannons in there, partially due to space concerns, and partially due to the fact that Satellite Cannon is a rather difficult card to find. To tell the truth, I have to borrow the other Cannon from a friend of mine when I want to play this deck. Still, if you get the chance, you should definitely give Satellite Cannon a try. It’s a whole lot of fun to play, and the only experience better than blowing someone away for more than his or her life total with a Satellite Cannon is blowing a Satellite Cannon away with Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Just like in the TV show!

Last, but not least, I’d like to extend my congratulations to Paul Lyn for his win in Orlando. You have no idea how excited I was to see Ancient Gear Drill in action, and yes, there was much cheering when I found out that Paul won. Events like Shonen Jump Championship Orlando just go to show that there is an incentive to work hard and think outside the box, and that’s an important lesson to take away for both your gaming career and life in general. Strike of Neos sneak previews are coming and with them comes a plethora of new ideas, so until next time, play hard, play fair, and most importantly, have fun!